Previous systems used for loading and unloading self-propelled heavy material such as self-propelled personnel carriers, weapons systems, tanks and other allied military vehicles, as well as civil vehicles such as farm equipment, and the like, have heretofore generally always been carried out on station platforms or work platforms manufactured or installed especially for this purpose. However, such limited and generally very localized positions of such stationary platforms have generally limited the use of military convoys or civil transport of heavy materials such as farm equipment to movement between locations equipped with such fixed platforms or access locations and has, accordingly, severely limited rail transportation of both military and civil vehicles freely to strategic points.
The invention is especially adapted to enable loading or unloading of self-propelled military equipment but it can also be used for other purposes such as the loading or unloading of public works machinery, water works machinery, farm machinery, construction machinery, and any other activity that requires the use of self-propelled heavy machinery. Any of these vehicles will therefore be able to be loaded and/or unloaded on the open tract, in other words, on any point of the railway line that contains a span with the dimensions necessary for extending, spreading out, and dropping the platform or ramp unit sections incorporated as parts of the present invention and no special loading or unloading docks, compounds, stations, permanent platforms, or the like, specially constructed, or fixed facilities are required.